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Bats Take Over Attic
Colony in house annoying, smelly and potentially a health risk
Reprinted from: The K-W Record - August 31, 2006 Colin
Hunter
It's not just the nauseating stench that is driving Kim Thoma
batty.
It's not just the pyramids of poop pellets piled on the attic
floor.
And it's not just the streams of urine that have soaked through
her husband's expensive ski equipment.
What bothers her most is that the bat infestation of her
Bloomingdale home could endanger her three-year-old son, Jacob, who is already
struggling with a host of health problems.
Airborne particles from bat droppings can cause histoplasmosis,
an illness characterized by flu-like symptoms, which can be especially dangerous
to people with weakened immune systems like Jacob.
Because of complications during birth, Jacob has epilepsy,
cerebral palsy, learning disabilities and -- perhaps most worrisome because of
the bat problem -- asthma.
"His biggest risk of dying is from problems with his lungs," his
mother said yesterday, shortly after having the house examined by a pest removal
crew. "I'm worried."
As long as the bat droppings, called guano, remain undisturbed,
there is little risk of airborne toxins. Which means that, until a crew can
begin the expensive removal procedure, the attic floor will continue to be a
dumping ground for the many bats living in the rafters.
Several nights ago, the family staked out vantage points on the
yard around the house and counted 78 bats flying out at dusk to hunt for bugs.
Typically, only half a colony will go out feeding on any given
night, so it's safe to assume the colony in the Thomas' attic has at least 150
bats.
"God, I hate it up here," 39-year-old Thoma said yesterday while
walking carefully between guano heaps in the attic. "They're wrecking our house,
and they could wreck my son's lungs."
Thoma wishes she and her husband, Ivan, had hired a pest control
expert to do a home inspection before they moved with their four children into
the large 150-year-old house last year.
They started to smell something foul shortly after moving in,
especially on hot, muggy days.
The bats themselves are tough to spot, since the species that
live in this area -- large and small brown bats -- don't hang upside down but
rather burrow into cracks and between beams.
That's why many homeowners don't realize they have a bat colony
in the rafters until a wayward bat flies into another part of the house.
Every year around this time, bat removal crews work in hundreds
of homes around Waterloo Region.
"In August, baby bats born earlier that year are starting to
fly, and they don't always know where they're going, so they end up flying
around inside the house instead of hunting outside," said Jason Matthews,
customer service manager with Humane Wildlife Control.
The Hamilton-based company has done more than 1,200 service
calls for animal control in August, and roughly 85 per cent of those calls have
been for bat removal, Matthews said.
Bill Dowd, president of the company, says the number of removals
the company has handled in Waterloo Region this year has increased by about 50
per cent from last year. He says the long hot spell of late July and early
August helped in the development of healthy bat pups.
Bats can squeeze through a hole the size of a dime, and some
older houses like Thoma's can have hundreds of such holes around the roof.
Attics are preferred by bats because they are warm, humid and quiet places to
raise pups.
Colonies can range in size from 50 animals to more than 500.
Though they don't deliberately bite humans, they might do so defensively if
being handled or stepped on.
Since bats are potential carriers of rabies -- a rabid bat was
found in Waterloo earlier this month -- contact with them should be avoided.
Bats are a protected species, so they can't be exterminated like
other pests. When a removal crew begins work on Thoma's home tomorrow, they will
seal smaller holes around the roof, and attach one-way exits to the bigger
holes.
Pest-control companies are rushing to do such work to as many
houses as possible before colder weather arrives, putting bats into a state of
hibernation.
"Any day now, the temperature will drop below 10 degrees Celsius
at night, they'll go into hibernation, and it's biologically impossible to get
them out of an attic," Dowd said.
The entire bat-proofing process in Thoma's home will require a
lot of labour, installation of new insulation and a new paint job, likely
totalling more than $6,000.
One company has already tried, unsuccessfully, to rid Thoma's
attic of bats.
She hopes, for her whole family's sake, the second attempt
works.
Someday soon, the house will require major renovations to allow
three-year-old Jacob to get around in a wheelchair. Doorways will be widened and
an elevator will be installed -- all of which will require walls to be knocked
down.
"The bats could be in the walls too, I don't know," she said. "I
guess we'll find out when we renovate."
BAT FACTS
A bat infestation is usually detected by the smell of droppings
coming from an attic. Bat droppings can be distinguished from mouse or bird
droppings by the presence of undigested insect parts.
Bats will usually leave their roosts just before dusk and return
just before dawn. Entry sites to the house can be spotted by the presence of
droppings on the wall and ground below.
Though disliked by homeowners, bats are valuable to the
environment and are a protected species.
A brown bat can eat 600 insects in an hour. A colony of 500 bats
can eat a million insects nightly.
Bats will return to the same roost year after year and can live
as long as 10 years.
Because bats like dark places, keeping a light on in the attic
could prevent infestation.
If a bat finds its way into a room of the house, it will usually
find its way out if the window is left open and the lights turned off. But
seeing one bat means there are likely more nearby, probably in the attic.
"In that case, we tell people to contact the professionals,"
said Ward McAlister, manager of the K-W Humane Society. "They know what to look
for, and they have ways of getting the bats out."
Several bat removal specialists are listed in the yellow pages
under "Animal control."
Source: The Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency
website, www. pmra-arla.gc.ca
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